Years in the Making
by Create-tion
Summary: Tony Stark and Dr. Hansen shared one simple night...one night...Tony had joked about having a son...He'd been partially correct. Turns out, Mr. Stark has a daughter. She's a Marine. He can't control her. He can't stop her. She's been captured by a group of HYDRA operatives and his entire world is about to cave in...panic and chaos will ensue. Expect many character cameos. MATURE
1. In Case Maury Calls

Nina crouched down into the wet snow of the hillside poking her head up with just barely enough visibility to catch a glimpse of where they were going. Her unit was scouting out different areas around a military-like base in Russia that had the hairs on the back of her neck crawling. This place was not military. She knew that. Her unit knew that. They needed to scout, observe, and get the hell back to the base. As an acting VMS** in this situation, she didn't have that much time to contemplate anything as they were ready to move to the next point within moments. They'd mapped out the south side of the building, the last remaining point, and from here they would be going back. Her boots found slippery traction in the snow and she knew everyone was having a hard time this close to the base with staying silent. It also didn't help that they had to keep the guns so tightly packed against their snow gear. Someone slipped. Nina stopped cold as their hands scrambled for the gun to keep it from hitting the ground.

" _No!_ " she hissed in a harsh whisper. Let the gun hit the ground! If he touched it…

BAM.

The shot rang out louder than Satan singing in church. Suddenly guards around the base just over the tiny hill were stopped and mobilizing.

" _Get out of there!_ " Riley hissed from the mic in her ear. Riley was their VMO or spotter and sniper cover. She made a scoffing noise in the back of her throat as she pressed forward grabbing the idiot in front of her who'd accidently fired his weapon by the back of his jacket. She hauled him to his feet and shoved him forward hard enough to make him grunt.

"Move!" she snapped in his ear. "Or I'll put the bullet in your ass that they should be." She warned him.

"Move!" Riley hissed again sharply in her ear.

"Trying!" She shot back through the mic at her chest located next to the radio.

"Incoming." Riley said calmer. There were six distinctive shots fired spattering over the crest of the hill. Nina was grateful for Riley. He was always her cover. There were times when Riley and Nina took separate missions for an agency that referred to themselves as S.H.I.E.L.D. These people wanted small, dirty, and clean missions which was what Riley and Nina could pull off. They always had been able too, even since training. Nina was the driving force and Riley stayed behind to give cover and scope out the situation.

"Thanks." She breathed over the line to Riley. In turn the soldiers started firing at the cover that he'd provided and not the hill line where they were now trekking their way back through the woods for cover and to the camp.

Once they were far enough away and within about a mile to the base, Nina opened the communication line back up with Riley. She was marching the marine in front of her that had slipped like he was on death row because he'd given away their position. If Riley hadn't been there, which he wasn't always able to give cover, they'd have probably lost one to two men. As it was they already had to change camp positions tonight in case they sent out a tracking squad. To say the least, Nina was annoyed. She was even more annoyed that part of famed STRIKE team would be joining them for another scouting mission tomorrow. They were to be flown in and dropped sometime in the early hours of the morning, darkness as cover, and hike to join the base. She hated STRIKE or what was left of them anyway after the whole battle with project INSIGHT. There wasn't really a whole lot left to S.H.I.E.L.D. either, but they both knew the Director Nick Fury and that he would contact them as available when needed. The STRIKE team was a large muscled group of assholes that used their fists more than their brains and usually messed shit up. They were what caused most of their FUBAR situations that Nina and other Marines had to dig themselves back out of.

"Riley." She said in a low voice over the line.

"Still here Kitten." She rolled her eyes as they hiked. She hated his nickname.

"That wasn't a military base. Did you run some of the photos we got?" she waited for his response.

"Yes." He shuffled around like there were papers around him. He'd be back at the base sooner than they were because he was only a one person unit heading back. There were six of them.

"And?" she prompted.

"I'm not sure exactly how much of this is supposed to be on file and what we should know." He spoke lower as if trying to whisper.

"Why?" she asked agitated in a clipped tone. Riley and herself were used to stumbling upon information they shouldn't have when helping out with the S.H.I.E.L.D. missions. They were basically sworn to secrecy under penalty of things that were never mentioned, most likely death or a prison cell, or they just never spoke of it; not even to each other.

"Well," he started taking a long breath, "The symbol on the guy's uniforms refers to a group that used to go by HYDRA." Nina almost stopped walking. They'd heard that groups reference name before. S.H.I.E.L.D. had sworn it was a mistake and that the organization didn't exist. Apparently they did very much so exist. It was good that the others didn't know about this, just another thing they'd have to keep to themselves.

"I don't like that." She whispered. "Riley…" she said as they finally neared the base again.

"What…" he responded sighing knowing what was coming.

"I'm scoping that place again tonight when lights are out." She knew what his response would be.

"I'll head out with you…asshole." He added as an afterthought.

"Thanks." She smirked.

 **(Sometime about a month later…)**

Steven Rogers and James Barnes had been slightly concerned when Director Fury had come to them with a mission for recovery of a missing Marine. They'd been even more confused when Tony Stark had walked into the briefing room. A young man stood across the expanse of the board room beside Nick looking itchy, sleep deprived, and unsteady. He had buzzed short brown hair and dark ridden circles under his unfocused brown eyes. He glanced at Fury as the other filed in. Bucky wasn't exactly sure what the kid was doing here but he looked just as uncomfortable.

"Now that all your asses are here, and Stark your fucking late." Fury snapped, "Let's get a move on this. Cap and Barnes, I involved you because I figured this was up your alley." He didn't address Stark.

"Why?" Rogers asked furrowing his brow to look at the young man in his uniform.

"This is Sniper Riley Jones." Nick nodded to him. "About a month ago, his partner and scouter Nina Hedges, became a hostage." Barnes nodded in understanding suddenly. Teams. The two soldiers, the missing and the sniper, bore a resemblance to the way he and Rogers had used to work.

"So what else is there to this?" Barnes asked slipping his metal arm into his pocket of his jeans.

"She was taken captive by a group of HYDRA agents working in a facility that we hadn't mapped yet." Fury finished. Steve saw Bucky tense but he didn't say anything else.

"She and I have worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. before on two man missions. We knew the symbol but not really anything about it. She wanted to get a better scope of the building and the people at the base…possibly get inside for some minor intel then straight back out." Riley spoke rubbing the back of his neck.

"I told her to get her ass back out of there when two guys crossed her back path to get back out. I couldn't get a bead on them. She wouldn't listen. She said there was something being hidden inside, there were too many to just be guarding a building. She was right…I just…I don't know." He sighed looking up at the ceiling.

"I should have gone in after her."

"It would have gotten you killed and her killed. By staying back you will be able to give us information about her and what happened that we wouldn't have otherwise." Steve spoke up immediately. Riley was not a super soldier, it was not the same situation, but Steve felt the same pang of guilt when he was around Bucky at times. He could have done something about his friend being taken…Riley couldn't.

"I guess." The kid looked away from them.

"When do we go get her?" Bucky asked. Steve saw the measure of anger just hidden in his eyes. He wanted to get there. He wanted to beat the shit out of any HYDRA agent.

"As soon as you want. The quinjet is waiting." Fury nodded to them both. "Gear is loaded to change."

"I'm going too." Riley said quickly. Fury raised an eyebrow.

"Let him." Steve said nodding. "Let him go. It's his partner." Relief flashed in Riley's eyes having a back-up from Captain America.

"Why am I here?" Stark suddenly spoke up annoyed. He yawned as if bored by the whole situation but it had actually been rather polite of him to wait for the engagement of conversation without interrupting.

"Oh…yeah…" Riley acted as if he were uncomfortable all over again glancing at Tony Stark.

"We have reason to believe the Nina's last name Hedges, is not really her birth name." Fury interrupted for the kid.

"She's going to hate me for this. She always wanted me to keep my mouth shut about it…but I knew I could get you guys to help find her…if I came forward with it." He said looking at the floor now.

"Riley here has shared information with us that Nina believed, and we've been able to uncover a few pieces of information that we don't have time to get into at the moment…"

"Nina might be your and Dr. Hansen's daughter." Riley interrupted Fury nervously. Tony lowered his chin and raised his eyebrows.

"I'm sorry…excuse me?"

"We'll contact Maury later. Right now, get on the jet." Fury snapped at Tony. "In case a "You are the Father" verdict is announced, I want you to be able to say that you helped rescue your kid Stark. I don't need you with any more of a guilt tripped conscious. It only makes your inventions worse and your brain useless to me." Fury put a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Let's go." Steve said heading for the door.


	2. Burn Baby Burn

Tony knew before the others acknowledged the fact that they needed eyes on the situation. They needed a way to see inside the building and find out what was going on before they could barge in there. A drone would get them close but not inside far enough. The girl had been missing for nearly a month and a half when they'd spliced out the details. They needed to know what was going on before they tried anything else. Tony had the technology to get them deeper inside without being noticed. He had cameras that could be flown into the building, smaller than a fingernail, and practically unseen. They had all agreed to start there; everyone except Bucky. He'd argued that it didn't matter what was happening that they needed to get in and get her the hell out. Riley had argued heavily against the Soviet assassin claiming that if they charged in, there was too high a risk to get Nina killed. Bucky had shortly retorted that she might already be dead. Riley had gone off…it had led to Robocop being held on one side of the quinjet and Riley on the other, Cap between them. Tony was impressed however. Riley had landed a good left hook on Barnes before the metal arm had smashed his head into the floor.

"I'm operational." Tony said running a hand through his hair. "In minutes we'll see what's going on inside that building. Can we all act like adults until we land and establish a base?" Tony snapped eyeing everyone.

"Yes. They can." Steve answered for the two men.

"It will be a live feed from the cameras. I flew them down and dropped them at the hill side and rolled them up and in. They can't be seen and they're mobile. I'm starting the feed now." Tony pressed a button on the quinjet main frame. A screen popped up displaying a black image. It suddenly switched over to the inside of the building.

After several minutes of migrating the small ball-like cameras around the base they found it. Several images of hallways, rooms that shouldn't be described, and many soldiers' feet later, they found a room. A soldier was opening the door to the room, sighing. An audio file started and they could hear the sounds from inside.

"Is she awake?" the man asked another soldier standing just inside the door.

"Been awake for about an hour." He shrugged, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Get anything out of her this time?" he asked shuffling inside. The camera rolled in behind him and climbed just up a wall enough to catch the full room. It hid behind a panel near a vent along the cement bricks.

"She's still saying she doesn't know shit." He spit out agitated.

Tony glanced back at Riley as the camera settled on a person strapped down in a chair.  
"Keep him under control Steve." Tony said under his breath glancing at the Captain. Riley tensed where he sat as his eyes roamed over the screen.

The person in the chair was obviously Nina. She was reclined back in a chair with her arms strapped down by metal cuffs. There was a machine with two sizable injectors stuck into her arms, at each bicep, with some kind of liquid still evident in them. There was also an IV tap of some kind stuck into her forearm with another blend of liquid still free flowing through it into her veins. Nina looked rough. Her hair was plastered with a sheen of sweat against the sides of her face and neck. Her eyes were dropping, barely open, and it was clear that within the last month she'd started to lose weight. The man neared her chair and she weakly struggled against the cuffs trying to get away from him. Her eyes opened wider. She glared at him.

He touched the side of her cheek brushing some hair back.

"Listen sweetheart." The man looked down over her sighing. "Give us the file information from your mission three months ago and this is all over." He gripped her chin.

"Don't…d-don't know…shit." She slurred out. The other soldier walked in and flicked the injector at her bicep. She flinched because it was still inside her arm.

"You know a great deal. More than you told that shithead of a sniper buddy." He gripped her throat. "Tell us what was in the file."

"B-Batman would lose…a-against I-Iron man." She laughed her eyes falling shut. It was a pained laugh.

"You little bitch." He gripped tighter. The other soldier touched his shoulder.

"We can't kill her." He said clearly.

"She's playing with us. At this point I say we set up the project and see if the injections have worked. Show her what pain is." He spat out with venom, eyeing the IV in her arm.

"She's not ready to test yet." He shook his head. "Give it another few injections and she'll be up to game." The one man snorted in the back of his throat and pushed Nina's chin away from his hand jarring her neck in the chair.

Riley got to his feet struggling against Cap to push forward and see the screen more clearly.

"This is the third round of injections. Why isn't she ready yet?" the man sighed running a hand down his face.

"It takes three rounds. The first breaks her body down with the combination of the muscle relaxer Diazepam, the second starts the stasis where her body accepts the Extremis injections, and the third rebuilds the body with controlled electro pulses while using Extremis. She's ready for rebuild. Let's see what we can make if we control it." He explained.

"Then fucking give it to her." He snapped.

"You won't want that while we're inside the room dumbass. She could go too hot. We need to get outside and have the computer administer the last injection of Extremis. It's the largest dose."

"Whatever. I want this bitch to burn." He grinned casting a nasty glance over her. "Whether she survives or not." The camera tracked the two men as they left the room slamming the concrete door shut behind them. It locked, clicking, and they watched slight recognition play over Nina's face. Her eyes were set wide over the ceiling and she took a long deep breath. They watched as she pulled at the restraints, in vain, trying to move barely an inch. It was no use. She grunted straining and they saw tears form in the corners of her eyes.

"We have to get in there!" Riley snapped.

"We will." Steve promised grabbing the boy's shoulders.

There was a beeping noise within the room.

"Tony, cut the screen." Steve snapped glancing back at Tony.

There was a small grunt as they watched the liquid running through the IV turn from clear to red. It didn't take long.

"Tony!" Steve snapped.

"I'm trying!" Stark growled back as the video feed started to cut out.

It wasn't enough to stop Riley from seeing what came next.

Veins under Nina's skin started to leak red with a burning sensation. It was like watching lava bubble up from beneath her skin. Her eyes were overcome with the same glowing tone. Her teeth. Her skin. Nina gripped the arms of the chair and opened her mouth. She screamed. She screamed louder than Riley had ever heard her do before. He stilled instantly, eyes wide, and Steve watched the color drain from the boy's face.

The screen went black.

"She'll be ok." Tony whispered seeing the ghosts haunt the boy's eyes. No one believed it on that plane. No one believed a word of it.


	3. Barely There (BONUS)

Nina was on fire. Her entire body was rapidly heating to a core temperature well over two thousand degrees. She was getting closer this time, more than she ever had before, to the set three thousand degrees temperature that would mean she was too hot. She'd only neared it once during the first injection just before they'd administered the Diazepam to make her lucid. The Extremis virus was burning her from the inside out. Nina screamed. She knew she was screaming. Her breathing was rapid and unsteady. Her heart pumped liquid fire. Her vision blurred to something that resembled a hazy wave. If she survived this last test, they'd start the electro pulses. They'd told her what they would do. They'd told her that they'd control the final muscle building stage with the last injection by introducing impulses of electronic waves. Nina could barely move because the drug in her IV kept her dazed out of her mind. It also helped as a muscle relaxant and stimulant to build when necessary. The Extremis would rely heavily on the drug to help rebuild her now. The largest does would be structured to recreate her body with the help of the electronic impulses so that they could hopefully keep her from going too hot now.

A high voltage shock went through her body.

Nina felt her fingers grip the chair so hard that there was a snap. Her right hand experienced a slicing pain where her index finger interjected into her palm; she'd gripped so hard she'd broken her finger. It went numb.

The pain didn't last much longer. Nina was slipping. Between the Extremis, the drug, and the pulses…she was beginning to slip. It was too much. Her brain was being overrode by a panic reaction in her body trying to keep her alive. The amount of pain she was in was too high. Another pulse rocked her in the chair, more heat sated through her chest, Nina's throat burnt like lightening.

If this worked, if they were able to control the Extremis virus through this technique being tested on her, there was no going back. This was only the tip of the problem. They would expect her to test in their project…they'd use her. She'd fight them. She couldn't let them. If it came down to it, she'd kill herself before she let them use her against someone else.

There was a banging outside the room.

Nina had started to feel her body cease to respond. The fire was either receding or she was going numb.

BANG.

BANG. BANG.

Her head rolled to the side as her chest heaved in as another pulse riveted her body. She shivered in the chair.

BANG.

It wasn't until she awoke that Nina scanned the room to see that the banging noise had not been something outside the room. It had been inside the room. It had been her…where she was in the chair…ripping at the metal as it had melted around her arms. She'd pulled chunks of it off flinging them across the room. There were dents in the metal walls where the chunks were splattered.

Nina slipped back into unconsciousness as the Diazepam took root in her brain. She was lucid again. She slipped to the floor shaking. She'd survived the third injection. She wasn't too hot.

She was alive.

(At the established base somewhere near the HYDRA facility...)

Tony sat in the chair facing the computer station he'd specifically set up to keep in contact with their eyes inside the base. They'd taken Riley straight off the jet and kept him beside Steve. The kid had nearly in a silent daze until they'd landed. When wheels had hit dirt, he'd lost it. He'd begged them to let him set off to start in after her. It had taken everything Tony could muster up to get the kid to agree to calm down. Steve had then taken him on a walk around the perimeter to cool off. That left Sargent Robocop with him. Barnes was patiently waiting for Tony to make a decision on what they should and shouldn't do at the moment.

"Check on her." He said flatly. "You want too." Tony glanced at him sighing.

"I have no idea if she's even mine." Stark replied flickering his eyes back to the screen.

"Doesn't matter. You want to know. It's the curiosity to know. You said you've seen that Extremis crap before." Stark nodded and shifted forward, had hovering over the button to turn the screen back on. Bucky sat with his arms crossed over his chest. He made an annoyed noise in the back of his throat before reaching forward and slamming his hand over the button.

"I…"

"Shut up." Bucky commented eyeing Stark. "Just observe. We need to know what happened to her anyway."

The screen blinked to life.


End file.
